What it's like to watch a Westminster drama unfold in front of your eyes

I was in a scrum of 100 journalists in a Commons corridor when the Tory leadership election result was read out in 1990, as well as during the Iraq War debate, on Black Wednesday, and throughout the Brexit debates and votes this week

There’s something about Westminster on a night of drama like Tuesday’s catastrophic defeat for Theresa May’s Brexit deal. The tension builds as you count down the hours to the critical vote.

You see MPs plotting in little huddles, sometimes in dark alcoves. Eagle-eyed whips patrol the carpeted corridors and the bars. They even search the “members only” loos when the vote finally arrives.

Sometimes it ends in anti-climax, with the government narrowly escaping defeat. Not this week. Everyone knew May would lose the crunch vote. But few, myself included, thought it would be by a record 230 votes. I had guessed 120.